This invention relates generally to dispensing devices and more particularly to such devices for producing a cleansing and/or sanitizing and/or deodorizing and/or aromatizing solution in the water of a toilet flush tank and for producing an aromatizing and/or deodorizing emission of fixed duration to aromatize and/or deodorize the air in the vicinity of the toilet. Such aromatizing and/or deodorizing emission is of a non-aerosol spray type and has as its source a perfume and/or deodorant-bearing material which is at least in part in the solid state or the gelled state at ambient conditions.
The soil and odor associated with a conventional toilet is a source of considerable concern to many people. One need merely consider the quantity of advertising directed to products for cleaning toilets and for freshening and aromatizing the air surrounding same to gain some insight into the concern directed towards the problem. With the possible exception of food preparation areas in the kitchen, the typical housewife probably cleans the bathroom toilet significantly more often than other areas in the home. As substantial a problem as this may be in the household, it is even a more pressing problem in public restrooms which are supplied with flush tank toilets. Not only are such public restrooms used significantly more often than the bathroom in a residence, they are used by transients who have little pride or concern in the appearance or condition of the toilet facility they leave behind. Because of the lack of sanitation associated with them, significant portions of our population are reluctant to use public toilet facilities.
Numerous efforts have been directed towards solving the problem of sanitation and odor in bathrooms in general, and in particular, those toilet facilities associated with public places. An enthusiastic housewife may clean the toilets of a private residence daily. Many public toilet facilities have full time attendants to maintain cleanliness in the facility. Any number of devices have been tried to produce sanitary surroundings being odor free or having a pleasant rather than aesthetically displeasing surrounding aromas in such public accommodations. These devices have run the gamut from liquid dispensers to electronic odor neutralizers, to aerosol spray devices that operate on timed cycles to apparatus connected to each toilet within a facility.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,064,573, (Calderone), disclosed a cleanser-sanitizer and timed cycle deodorizing spray attachment for toilets wherein an attachment for a toilet is disclosed which produces a cleanser-sanitizer solution with the water stored in the flush tank and which produces an aerosol spray of deodorizer for a fixed duration midway through each flushing cycle. The Calderone device is a complicated aerosol can-containing device which carries with it the usual problems associated with the use of aerosol containers well known to one having ordinary skill in the art.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,953,902 issued on May 4, 1976, (G. N. Taylor), discloses a device for introducing an additive liquid into a flush tank of a "water closet". When the "water closet" is flushed and the water level in the tank lowers from a first normal level to a second lower level, air is admitted into a conduit means. As the water level later rises from the second level toward the first level, the admitted air is forced through the conduit means into a container containing an additive liquid where it is compressed. The compressed air forces a portion of the additive liquid through second conduit means and into the water in the tank. The Taylor U.S. Pat. No. 3,953,902, does not disclose a means for causing the occurrence of a pleasant aroma emission and/or deodorant emission into the air surrounding the water closet midway through the flushing cycle.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,914,805 issued on Oct. 28, 1975, (Dolan), discloses a room deodorizing device adapted to be mounted on a flush tank of a toilet which includes an arrangement for dispensing perfume on a continuous basis into the room surrounding the toilet and to replenish or provide an incremental concentration of perfume to the room atmosphere automatically in response to the actuation of the toilet flush tank. The Dolan U.S. Pat. No. 3,914,805, does not, however, have a feature which employes a solution containing cleansing and/or sanitizing and/or deodorizing and/or aromatizing liquid for the flush tank and aromatizing and/or deodorizing material which can be emitted into the atmosphere around the flush tank from the same dispenser, operating in a synergistic manner. This is also the case with U.S. Pat. No. 3,715,765, issued on Feb. 13, 1973, (Yadro), wherein a perfume or deodorant is dispensed from an absorbent material whenever a water closet is flushed. The absorbent material of Yadro is over an air opening in a chamber which is filled with water after the water closet is flushed so that air is expelled through the absorbent material containing deodorant and a small quantity is carried into the room air. In the Yadro patent, the absorbent material may form the top of a chamber normally containing air and water or may be supported on a tray which forms the top or the absorbent material may initially be sealed with or enclosed by water soluble materials.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,795,799, (Dickerman), discloses an aerosol deodorant can that is actuated by a downward pressure on the seat of a conventional toilet. In 1962, N. W. Price disclosed, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,068,492, apparatus for attaching an atomizer deodorant can to the outside of a toilet flush tank to be actuated whenever the flush handle is depressed. D. T. Behringer, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,023,427, issued in 1962, disclosed a device which could be located within the flush tank of a conventional toilet and is effective for sterilizing and deodorizing the bowl of the toilet. Apparatus was disclosed in 1963 by M. Kaplan in U.S. Pat. No. 3,093,835, for locating a spray deodorizer within the flush tank of a conventional toilet and discharging a deodorant spray outside the flush tank into the air of the room surrounding the toilet.
The devices of the prior art have not been totally satisfactory in resolving the problems discussed. None of these devices is effective both within the toilet and in the surrounding atmosphere (proximate to the toilet) as well. The devices disclosed by Dickerman, Price and Kaplan are effective only to discharge a deodorant spray into the air. Such devices are completely ineffective for cleansing the toilet bowl of fecal residue and insuring that the bowl is in a sanitized condition at the completion of the flush cycle. Conversely, Behringer's device is associated only with flush water discharged into the toilet bowl. It is completely ineffective for overcoming flatulence or fetor from the bowl effluvium which may have escaped from the bowl area to foul the air surrounding the toilet.